Frustrations in Indian cinema

    Paisa Vasool! Really! How much do we pay to go to theater to watch cinema these days? 350 to 500 Rupees or 15 to 20 bucks !! I have to mention the name "bucks" as many of the viewers including me for that matter are from that part of the world where bucks are said now and then. Taking this into consideration, I see a lot of viewers appearing dis-satisfied for the entertainment they get. We don't have many paisa-vasool statements these days because of 2 reasons. One is an obvious thing where I have described all these while and the other is the obvious standard of the movie. I stated "obvious" in both the reasons because sometimes I feel the blatant obviousness is not recognized by the movie crew which means to say that the movie watching junta is not given enough importance while making a movie. Also maybe these are reasons for not recognizing our films at a global level inspite Mr.Anil Kapoor and Big B reminding us again and again that we have an international reach. Remember, Slumdog Millionaire was created by a British and was never an Indian movie. It only had an Indian story .Pun Intended. These are the reasons why Indian movies fail to have global reach. Trust me, when you start watching Hollywood movies, you almost completely lose interest over our movies. Why does this happen? These are few of my points here: 

1.) Songs: Songs according to me hamper the flow of a movie. Recently I watched a Tamil movie,7th sense . There was a scene where the protagonist of the movie gets rejected by the heroine and boom a sad song happens just when the audiences were able to feel the disappointment of the hero in it. Then the audience start cursing the song in the movie and the movie loses it's flow. This happens over and over again in Indian cinema. Even you might have experienced the same frustration while watching the movie. So a song should either appear as a separate album like an OST and should not interfere in the movie or else it should not hamper the flow of the movie, Songs can appear only in musical or maybe a romcom according to me. 

2.) Genres: Indian movies are not classified into different genres like action, musical, romance, romcom, thriller, scinece fiction etc. This is one of the disadvantages. The problem is we have all packages including sentiment packaged into one which are called masala movies. This sometimes confuses the audience and gives a tough time for judges to select the movie for international awards. For eg, Ra One or an Endhiran should be a super-hero movie genre. There cant be any songs or music or sentiment in it One of the very best examples where the director had got it right was Alaypayudhe (Saathiya in Hindi) where it was of romantic musical genre. The songs were well placed in the movie and had good narration. For eg, in Hollywood, Serendipity/500 days of Summer was a perfect example of a pure romantic movie . Why don't we produce genres like this?  Even 2012 which was silly sometimes was found to be extremely good and entertaining because we knew what was in store for us as the movie was classified as a disaster movie genre. We need to produce more Dil Chahta Hais(rom-com), Nayagan (gangster epic), Die Hard/Transporter/Bourne series(action) etc.. 

3.) Heroism: To be a star, you need to strengthen your image and deliver the same style, mannerisms and larger than life persona. But to be an actor, you need to constantly break the image, reinvent it every time and discover newer ways to portray characters, even if it means changing your look and appearance with every film.MGR-Rajni with the superstar status accorded to them, have never felt the pressure to prove themselves artistically just like Sivaji-Kamal with the accolades and awards won, have never felt that they were wrong to experiment with the box office. Most of the heroes are still obsessed over their title-tag baggage. This usually happens in Tamil/Telugu films and I don't want to point out about whom I am talking about. We need a focus shift towards directors once again. We need producers to understand that good cinema stems from storytelling rather than just one or two individuals. We need our filmmakers to be able to tell their stories with flourish rather than blow up all the money to hero-worship one person’s ego. The case in point in Ra One again( sorry SRK fans) which I thought was a very expensive mid-life crisis and even Dasavatharam by my favourite hero Kamal who showed his ego in that movie dominating every aspect of the movie making. We need our actors to be stars and our stars to be actors. We no longer live in the world where Big B or Rajni used to beat the pulp out of villains and the directors/actors/producers or sometimes even the audience must understand that! They should understand that content is the king and not the actors. As Sudhish Kamath, a famous critic rights says "We need our actors to be stars and our stars to be actors."

4.) Indian Cinema should also not be called Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood ,Sandalwood, and other woods. :P I fail to understand why we don't unite any of them into Indian cinema. The case for these ----woods only helps in increasing the ego between film industries of many states in India. Also a case for infighting and no global recognition. For eg, Shwaas which was a very inspiring Marathi movie got stamped and over-written by Bollywood and there was not much recognition.

5.)Heroines: We need women back in our cinema, not just as glam dolls, but as real women with real issues. This point seems to be changing however in a positive way.

6.)Last but not the least, I feel the intelligence of the audience also needs to improve. I don't blame the audience for this as we rarely get good films at the box-office. However this is also a case in point.

    I am no big scholar in movies here. U might agree or disagree with these points. These are some of the obvious points that I find while watching any Indian movies. Do post your comments on what are the good/bad movies that you have watched recently. 

Cheers,

Uday

The Umbrella rule

"Gosh!! How ironic? I carried an umbrella and it did not rain. " This is usually followed by " What a waste of energy and resource?" These are statements of frustrated people when it does not rain even after carrying the umbrella and putting on the rain-coat when the forecast said showers through-out the day! These especially happen in India because of weather forecast there which we know. "I missed the bus yesterday when bus had come 5 minutes early and so I decided to come early today and hell the bus was late! " Another frustrated sentence from a frustrated party. These are some of the very common occurrences that happen in our day-to-day life. The summary of this is nothing but the umbrella rule. It is a very simple rule that we experience but a very meaningful and a very useful one nevertheless. Some instances now:

There is a nice movie called " Crazy , Stupid , Love" . In that the protagonist being in a mid-life crisis after a divorce is shattered in a bar drinking liquor and blabbering. At that time , a stranger in that bar becomes his friend and suggests a shake-up in his appearance and routines. Hence the protagonist works very hard to woo women by enhancing his appearance and working on his communicating skills (like speaking lies like he is not a divorcee etc) . He is taught daily by his stranger friend for around 1 month. Then suddenly he finds a women really sexy and wants to woo her by his now acquired skills from his stranger friend. But when he prepares himself and tries to woo her, it all comes crashing down to earth as he is found out to be lying and she becomes angry on him. Then he loses hope and is frustrated and then shows his frustration about his life and his divorce with his wife where he becomes his usual self. This surprisingly attracts the concerned woman and she falls for him. This is one nice instance of the umbrella rule. The protagonist least expected for the woman to fall for him when he became his own-self and too even after preparing to be someone else to woo her!

There was also an instance during my college days about this rule. There was a Mathematics class and we were told by our professor that we were going to taught one of the toughest and the most important theorems in Mathematics which is De Moivre's theorem on complex numbers. Hence the Professor told us to have complete attention and use all our resources in our brains to understand it. After hearing that, there was a pin-drop silence all were into the theorem while the professor was explaining. After explanation, we began to think whether this was really a very tough theorem and we wondered that it was one of the easiest theorems. Then our Professor told us about this rule and exclaimed that he lied about the toughness of the theorem as it was very important for our exam so that we will give all our energies into the theorem. Like this talking about exams, how many times have we been in a situation such that we study like a man possessed for one particular tough subject but the exam appears to be really easy like Geoffrey Boycott says "Even my mom could have answered that question paper" :). The vice versa also has however happened wherein we expect an easy paper and don't study much and then we realize that it is one of the toughest that we have encountered.

I have also encountered a funny incident in US wherein I was denied driving license twice even without driving the car as the brake light was not functional once and during the second time, the car battery had drained out. So for the third time, I took a car from a very good enterprise by shelling out a lot of money and check all the batteries and the lights in the car before the driving test. This time the driving instructor did not even check the car lights and told me to drive and I got the license . So look at the irony here and hence the umbrella rule!

A.R. Rahman himself did not expect to win an Oscar for Slumdog millionaire. In-fact he had done much better work and had pushed himself to the extremes in many of his earlier films but couldn't win an Oscar in those films!

So what are the stuffs to hark back on this rule? What do we learn from this rule?

The US President Abraham Lincoln once said " I will prepare and some day my chance will come". This is exactly what this rule describes according to me. If you have prepared well and something does not happen, no need to lose hope. It will happen when you least expect it happen. Maybe the wish from the hard work and preparation will bear fruit at a later and unexpected stage. It is something like this " It is better to carry and umbrella and not get wet or sunburns when hot rather than not carrying an umbrella and get sloshed by rains. " So better to be well prepared and not lose hope when we dont achieve the desired results. Results will come later when you least expect it to. Life is a funny ride . So take it easy and prepare well. :) Also share your experiences of this rule and hope you all agree with this rule or agree to disagree.

Uncle Sam experience

Ah! Well . Finally there is an attempt to write a blog after many attempts of thinking of doing it!! Procrastination unfortunately is a unnecessary evil. This is a blog written due to some difference that happened in my life which followed a path of constancy. The difference was in terms of self-improvement or whatever people call it. I had thought that I had been living in my space for a long time, doing some sort of monotonous chores and taking the weekends by spending time in my home or occasionally meeting friends. So finally it was desperation time as I started pushing for the "difference". I started trying out new things, took up MBA classes, gave interviews for a few companies, started developing interest in some extra-curricular activities etc..etc.. But then comes the umbrella rule which I will be explaining it to u later . This rule for instance is when a guy thinking that it would be a rainy day will take all the precautions not to get drenched in rain(like carrying a raincoat, umbrella etc) but unfortunately it would be a sunny day that day. So better being surprised be a sunny day instead of getting drenched in rain if it was a rainy day. That surprise was a long trip to US which I was supposed to go some 2 years back and could not go due to certain circumstances . So I sort of had to give up on it. But now there was a problem of plenty. I had got a new job and had the offer from my company to go to US. I have always thought that it is either nothing or everything. The same thing happened to me. What do I do now? i thought. I however decided to pursue my original interest as old feelings always linger with u just like your first love!!

From the moment I arrived in US, there was a feeling of seclusion . I along with 4 friends arrived in US 2 nights after my birthday. Suddenly I found empty streets at 9 p.m. Something drastic has happened if the same thing happens in Bangalore. So I just thought " What the hell was that about these empty streets" . Then i joined my friend's home in US and there was dinner. I had a sense of guilt hovering around me while having dinner as I did not know the ABCD of cooking. So how am I going to survive was my first question to myself? But then first time is what everybody are going to experience when they start cooking. Somehow I managed and the the recipe was edible. These days I feel a sense of deja vu about my cooking while thinking about my time during my earlier cooking days. Days passed and I started settling into the new job both in home and office.

TRIPS:

We visited quite a number of places in California. The good part of that was that each trip was distinctively different in experience. I have been to Grand Canyon, Vegas, LA, Universal Studios, SFO, Yosemite and some hiking trips. Each had their own beauty. While Yosemite was a picture of complete wet greenery, Grand Canyon was a picture of complete dry muddy mountains. I sometimes wonder how within a stretch of 500 miles anywhere in the world, the demography changes completely. In a comic way naturewise , God has given a little bit of everything for us to enjoy. It is only after seeing all these places, I sometimes get the feeling that why I havent explored the same thing in India even though there are many places like in India itself.Dont know whether it is ignorance or willingness to appreciate nature in India or maybe whether there are other distractions (family, friends etc) to keep us engaged. Hard to explain.

VEGAS:

Ah!! I did not know what was so special about Vegas. Everyone were talking about Vegas. People were chuckling when asked about Vegas. Wat the hell was that? And moreover "Hangover" movie was released and a line in the movie became the catch line " Watever happens in vegas stays in Vegas". To our astonishment, this line is still famous till this day. Such is the effect of the movie. When I entered Vegas, it was like I was entering a new world. Such was the brilliance. We were stunned by the "enlightened" city( enlightened has many meanings here!) with flashing lights everywhere. Beautiful women were roaming here and there with their boyfriends on one hand and beer on other hand. :D Such is the effect of the women. All was new : the casinos, the poker games, beer on the streets, the big fountain, the lights, the crowd etc. I have to mention that we played a game called "Russia Roulette" in one of the casinos and surprising won some money!

DRIVING LICENSE: Sometime we feel that bad luck hits u only once . I had failed the behind-the-wheels test twice!! U might think that this guy does not know how to handle a car. That was the reason for him to fail a driving test. Well thats where you were wrong. I failed the driving test the first time because the car did not get started. That was because the battery of car was drained out. Don't ask me how did it drain out. Thats is bad luck. The second time I went , the car started. That was an instant relief for me. But hold on for a second, when the driving instructor told me to switch on the brake lights, the brake lights were not switching on. Yes u are right . This was the second time I flopped without driving. I had a weird feeling that I haven't felt in my life. I did not know whom to blame. Is it just fate or is it a blunder? I am still trying to figure out that. But it makes a good story for the grandchildren. Isn't it? But then there is a saying " If u can't change fate , change your attitude. With this saying, there was a happy ending. I passed it at the third attempt. Yes, the car started and the brake lights were working correctly. 90% of the battle was won. I only had to drive. Thats weird . Isn't it for driving is the most important part for obvious reasons in any test. Yes thats how I felt.

EPILOGUE:

Hmm.. On the first note one would like to think why people would like to come to Uncle Sam and why is it regarded as a prestige to come to US. Lot of factors . Would write a separate blog on that!!The main reason obviously is known by a most of them of course! But that doesn't matter. Really! Well. i actually realized a lot of things after coming here. Realized how to adjust realized how to cook (really!), realized sometimes what loneliness means, realized the importance of friends in our life, realized how to talk to various people, realized how much I am being loved by my parents and friends( a lump in my throat while writing this sentence, realized why US is more developed than India, realized how people ditch the home country to settle in US for selfish needs(though some of them may disagree with me on this) and other realizations. But these realizations might make you a better person. That is why it is always good for a person to experience a different country and go back (some of them unfortunately don't). So Uncle Sam has made me realize a lots of things and hopefully made me a better person.

Cheers,

Uday